did'nt realize this was soooo long....

[Stardust75]

TESTING THE FAITH

Bush: All religions pray to 'same God'

Posted: October 7, 2007

1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


President George Bush has repeated his belief all religions, "whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God" – an assertion that caused outrage among evangelical leaders when he said it in November 2003.


Bush made the statement Friday in an interview with Al Arabiya reporter Elie Nakouzi.


Al Arabiya is Al Jazeerah's top competitor in the Mideast.


As the president and Nakouzi walked from the Oval Office to the Map Room in the White House residence, Nakouzi asked, "But I want to tell you – and I hope this doesn't bother you at all – that in the Islamic world they think that President Bush is an enemy of Islam – that he wants to destroy their religion, what they believe in. Is that in any way true, Mr. President?"


"No, it's not," said Bush. "I've heard that, and it just shows [sic] to show a couple of things: One, that the radicals have done a good job of propagandizing. In other words, they've spread the word that this really isn't peaceful people versus radical people or terrorists, this is really about the America not liking Islam.


"Well, first of all, I believe in an Almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That's what I believe. I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace. And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren't religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that – we had a person blow up our – blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City who professed to be a Christian, but that's not a Christian act to kill innocent people.


"And I just simply don't subscribe to the idea that murdering innocent men, women and children – particularly Muslim men, women and children in the Middle East – is an act of somebody who is a religious person.


Friday's statement echoes one made by Bush in November 2003 during a joint press conference with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. A reporter noted Bush had frequently expressed the view that freedom is a gift from "the Almighty," but questioned whether Bush believes "Muslims worship the same Almighty" as the president and other Christians do.


"I do say that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America's gift to the world," Bush replied. "It's much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same god," reported the London Telegraph...


In Friday's interview with Al Arabiya, Bush emphasized his outreach to Muslims.


"We are having an Iftaar dinner tonight – I say, 'we' – it's my wife and I," Bush told Nakouzi. "This is the seventh one in the seven years I've been the president. It gives me a chance to say 'Ramadan Mubarak.' The reason I do this is I want people to understand about my country. In other words, I hope this message gets out of America. I want people to understand that one of the great freedoms in America is the right for people to worship any way they see fit. If you're a Muslim, an agnostic, a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, you're equally American.


"And the value – the most valuable thing I think about America is that – particularly if you're a religious person – you can be free to worship, and it's your choice to make. It's not the state's choice, and you shouldn't be intimidated after you've made your choice. And that's a right that I jealously guard.


"Secondly, I want American citizens to see me hosting an Iftaar dinner."


"That's a strong message for the Americans," said Nakouzi...

[end news article excerpt]


cont...

[Stardust75]

President Bush truly is sending a strong message to Americans. He is declaring that a right that he jealously guards is that Babylonian concept that all religions are equally to be honored, that all religions worship the same god, and that Islam is as much a religion to be honored as Christianity. In truth, President Bush has spent much more time acting as a defender of Islam than as a defender of the faith he purports to adhere to.


The subtle snare for Christians in America is to begin to believe that a good American must also hold to the same Babylonian concepts that seek to decry the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father, and to deny that all others who seek to enter by another way are thieves and robbers (John 10:8).


Once more we find President Bush refusing to denounce Islam's practitioners as disciples of a false and evil religion, and instead he lays the blame at the feet of "radical people." How easy it will be in coming days to declare that all Christians who stand by their testimony that Jesus Christ alone is "the way, the truth and the life" are radical people, religious extremists, and bigoted. They will be accused of transgressing the highest tenets of true religious people; tolerance, open-mindedness and diversity.


The persecution for failing to embrace all religions openly is already being felt as the following news article reveals.


MEDIA MATTERS

Talk-show host fired for linking Islam, terror


Posted: August 21, 2005

9:21 p.m. Eastern


By Joseph Farah

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Michael Graham


WASHINGTON – Michael Graham, the Washington, D.C., talk-show host suspended for linking Islam and terrorism, has been fired by ABC Radio following weeks of pressure applied by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group with its own well-documented connections to terrorism.

Graham was the popular mid-morning host on WMAL in the nation's capital until three weeks ago when CAIR demanded he be punished for his on-air statements about Islam. After initially backing the host, WMAL suspended him without pay July 28.


"CAIR immediately announced that my punishment was insufficient and demanded I be fired," Graham said in a statement to WND. "ABC Radio and 630 WMAL have now complied. I have now been fired for making the specific comments CAIR deemed 'offensive,' and for refusing to retract those statements in a management-mandated, on-air apology. ABC Radio further demanded that I agree to perform what they described as 'additional outreach efforts' to those people or groups who felt offended. I refused. And for that refusal, I have been fired."


CAIR is a spin-off of a group described by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the terrorist group Hamas in the U.S. Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.


Graham's suspension stemmed from characterizing Islam a "terrorist organization." Graham explained that when a significant minority of a group conducts terrorism and the general population of that group does not denounce it, it is safe to conclude that the group promotes it.


He drew an analogy between Islam and the Boy Scouts.


"If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization," he said. "If the BSA refused to kick out those 10 troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout handbook and found language that justified and defended murder – and the scoutmasters in charge simply said 'Could be' – the Boy Scouts would have driven out of America long ago."


Graham is furious that CAIR is now able to exert this kind of influence in the U.S. media.


"It appears that ABC Radio has caved to an organization that condemns talk radio hosts like me, but has never condemned Hamas, Hezbollah, and one that wouldn't specifically condemn al-Qaida for three months after 9-11," he said. "As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show. As a conservative talk host whose job is to have an open, honest conversation each day with my listeners, I believe caving to this pressure is a disaster."


Graham said he couldn't accept the idea of apologizing "for the truth and I cannot agree to some community-service style 'outreach effort' to appease the opponents of free speech."


"If I had made a racist or bigoted comment – which my regular listeners know goes against everything I believe in – I would apologize immediately, and without coercion," he said. "When I have made inadvertent fact errors in the past, I apologized promptly and without hesitation. But we have now gone far beyond that, with demands that I apologize for the ideas my listeners and I believe in..."

[end news article excerpt]


Satan is actively seeking to quash all opposition to an open acceptance of all religious beliefs. Freedom of speech is not free anymore. There are even now attempts being made in the political realms of America to make speaking out against other religions and homosexuality a hate crime. Such legislation has already been passed in a number of nations, where it is even considered a hate crime to quote from passages of Scripture that denounce homosexual behavior. The case of Ake Green in Sweden is one example.


During the 2007 session of Congress, twin bills were introduced in the House and Senate under the title "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Assistance Bill." These bills are Senate Bill 1105 introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and House Bill 1592. (Go to www.congress.gov and search on S.B. 1105, or H.R. 1592 to read the text of these bills and to learn of their current status.)


After similar legislation was adopted in Australia, two pastors were charged with hate crimes violations for criticizing Islam. One of the pastors, Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministries, warned Americans, "If that bill goes through, it's the same bill with a different name, and you will have the same consequences on your soil."


At the same time that Satan is flooding the world with a message of pro-homosexuality and universal respect for all religions and deities, he is stepping up his activity to limit all dissenting voices. It is a certainty that when he has gathered all the world under one government that the only message that will be tolerated will be his own. Yahshua said that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He also declared him to be a murderer, and the originator of murder. It was surely Satan that enticed Cain to slay his brother Abel for the single reason that Abel's offering was approved by God and Cain's wasn't. Satan will continue to turn those whose actions are disapproved of God into the murderers of those who are found pleasing to Him.


Although it is disturbing on one level to find that Satan is using the President of the United States as his spokesperson to lead the world to a merging of all religions and all gods, and it seems that all power is currently in Satan's hands and that his plans are going forth without any effectual resistance, one must not forget that "all power" rests ultimately in the hands of Jesus Christ, Yahshua the Messiah.


Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you...

[Amplified Bible]


We must continue to teach people to observe everything that the Son of God instructs us in. God has said that He is a jealous God and that he will have no other gods before Him. Jesus has said that there is no other way to the Father but by Him. God has described homosexuality as an abomination in the Old Testament, and through the apostle Paul we hear the words of Christ in the New Testament.


Romans 1:1, 26-28

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper...


Today I can declare such things without fear of imprisonment, or risk of being charged with hate crimes violations. But the Spirit bears witness that the day is not far off when all who agree with the word of God will be persecuted for openly confessing the same. Though our motive be love of God and love of our neighbor, and a desire to see all men delivered from the wrath to come upon the children of disobedience, we will nevertheless be characterized as being motivated by hate.


I Corinthians 6:9-10

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.


II Corinthians 5:10-11

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men...


Soon it will be a crime to persuade men. Then it will be revealed whether we love God and our neighbor more than ourselves.


A Christian should not despair of what is coming, nor should he think that Satan has been given all power and authority, for this is something that only Christ has been entrusted with. As Babylon is renewed upon the Earth, we should remember that God judged both Babel and Babylon before, and He will do so again. (Three is the number of completion in Scripture, and the third judgment of Babylon will bring it to a fulness of judgment.)


Revelation 18:2-8

And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities... For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong."


In the writing that preceded this one I quoted from Jeremiah where he pronounced Yahweh's judgment upon the former kingdom of Babylon. In that judgment God said He would dry up her waters. Babylon was once a lush and well watered kingdom. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the hanging gardens of Babylon. There was a great inland sea that came close to the city of Babylon. Yet after God pronounced His curse upon Babylon for her sins, chief being her idolatry, He dried up the sea, and made Babylon a waste place which the people abandoned due to famine.


This same judgment is pronounced through John in the quotation above from Revelation. He said of this later Babylon, "In one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine." This is a dire warning for America which is acting as the seat of Satan's work to rebuild Babel and to spread idolatry and wickedness throughout the Earth.


It is no coincidence that all over the news of this hour there are reports on droughts afflicting large portions of America. Just today on the site www.weather.com I read reports and watched videos on the severe drought in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Carolinas, and in California. The drought is so severe in many of these places that it is being reported that if things do not change soon that some of America's greatest cities could run out of water within a year.


Does this sound incredible? I am sure the citizens of ancient Babylon thought Jeremiah's prophecy to be equally hard to accept. Look at the news reports for yourself. Even as God dried up the waters of Babylon, so is He drying up one body of water after another across America. It is even reported that the Great Lakes are receding. The shore lines are now exposed and large ships are prohibited from traveling where they could go just a short time ago.


As America and her leaders act ever more as the spokespersons for the establishment of a new Babylon, a Babylon that once more honors all idolatries and makes the abominable declaration that all religions worship the same god, she will see the hand of God's judgment heavy upon her.


So do not be dismayed if it seems that evil is advancing everywhere. After we have suffered a little while our God will arise to deliver His faithful ones.


Jeremiah 50:33-38

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well; And all who took them captive have held them fast, they have refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong, Yahweh of hosts is His name; He will vigorously plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon. "A sword against the Chaldeans," declares Yahweh, "And against the inhabitants of Babylon and against her officials (Presidents and Congress) and her wise men!... A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, and they are mad over fearsome idols."